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Networking IT

Pimp My Datacenter 117

Posted by kdawson from the rack-and-cable-porn dept.
snydeq writes "InfoWorld has put together an in-depth, hands-on feature detailing the complete pimp-out makeover of Hawaii Institute of Geophysics' 1950s-era server room into a bona-fide 21st century datacenter equipped with 'some of the glitziest and most functional gear known to datacenter-building man.' The project — completed neither on time nor on budget — resulted in improved rack and cable management, more efficient cooling, higher security, and a wealth of remote management functionality to keep University of Hawaii IT staff from having to leave the beach to service glitches. Editorial coverage includes essential tips for completing a datacenter overhaul, video interviews, and deep-dive coverage of the technologies implemented, including state-of-the-art datacenter-planning software, power and cooling equipment, out-of-band management systems, physical security solutions, remote rebooting capabilities, and more."
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Pimp My Datacenter More

Pimp My Datacenter

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  • I got a bad feeling about this . . . (Score:5, Funny)

    by cashman73 ( 855518 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @09:35PM (#23833489) Journal
    Like all of a sudden, CNN's [cnn.com] gonna pick up on this story, and start talking about "nerd caves",. . .

  • I'll make my own datacenter (Score:5, Funny)

    by CrazyJim1 ( 809850 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @09:44PM (#23833551) Journal
    With hookers and blackjack. Well screw the blackjack.

    Someday I'll get over cringing when people use the word pimp positively.

  • Sigh (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jaxtherat ( 1165473 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @09:45PM (#23833559) Homepage

    Pimp My Datacenter
    Maybe I'm just too old to get it (26), but when did pimps become cool, and the word pimp become a verb commonly used to describe a process of improvement? I mean, when I was growing up, a pimp was a scumbag who hooked women (and some men) with drugs and threats and made them turn tricks. Hardly something laudible.

    Yes, I know "get off my lawn" etc...

    • Re:Sigh (Score:5, Funny)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @09:46PM (#23833577)
      Around the same time we started seeing "wiggers"
    • If the article has "Pimp" in the title, and it wasn't even written by Herbert Kornfeld [theonion.com] then gonna not RFTA twice!

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by maxume ( 22995 )
      It happened at least 10 years ago (I'm 28). Maybe about 50 years ago. (Don "Magic" Juan Yo)

      More likely than 'when did become' is 'where' not including the area that you grew up in.

    • Re:Sigh (Score:5, Funny)

      by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @10:16PM (#23833807) Journal

      when did pimps become cool, and the word pimp become a verb commonly used to describe a process of improvement?

      The 70s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaxploitation [wikipedia.org]
      The 80s and 90s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimpmobile [wikipedia.org]
      And the 00s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimp_My_Ride [wikipedia.org]

      Maybe I'm just too old to get it (26),

      You're not remotely too old... You were just simply an unpopular and stodgy individual.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by TooMuchToDo ( 882796 )
        Isn't "Pimpmobile" one of Bender's top 10 most commonly used words?

        (see bouncy ball world war, featuring head of Nixon, Zap Brannigan, and Henry Kissinger)

        • Bender's Top Ten most frequently uttered words:
          10. Chump
          9. Chumpette
          8. Yours
          7. Up
          6. Pimpmobile
          5. Bite
          4. My
          3. Shiny
          2. Daffodil
          1. Ass
          • Bender -- "What word sets the nuclear weapon off? Come on, I won't say it. Is it antiquing?"

            I love that episode. Classic.

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      See this article on Slate about the history of the word "pimp" used as a verb:
      http://www.slate.com/id/2184211/

      The Slate article is good reading. It might actually answer your questions.

      (See also "Pimp My Ride," a show on MTV. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimp_My_Ride )

    • Maybe I'm just too old to get it (26), but when did pimps become cool, and the word pimp become a verb commonly used to describe a process of improvement? I mean, when I was growing up, a pimp was a scumbag who hooked women (and some men) with drugs and threats and made them turn tricks. Hardly something laudible.

      Pimps became "cool" out of necessity long before you were born. I think your negative perceptions stem from a common misunderstanding of the "pimp" business model and sex-worker economy promoted by negative fictional role models in the media, such as Flyguy [imdb.com], which, although part of pimp-culture's marketing strategy, backfired. Let me explain.

      Pimps serve a vital role as intermediaries between the the poverty-stricken segment of society (which the sex-worker economy typically draws on for labor) and its mor

  • Lame (Score:5, Funny)

    by FSWKU ( 551325 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @09:45PM (#23833563)
    Not the datacenter itself, but the InfoWorld coverage. Two pages that could have EASILY been put on a single page (although that would decrease ad impressions and we can't have that, now can we?) and a complete lack of pictures of this supposedly awesome upgrade? Can we PLEASE stop posting stories from the dolts at InfoWorld? All we're doing is driving ad impressions on shoddy articles. Mod me as offtopic if you wish. I couldn't care less as I have plenty of karma.

    • I gotta agree. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by khasim ( 1285 )
      And the links to their videos ... are links to unrelated videos.

      And the "coverage" ... it's non-existent. WHY choose those items? Why THOSE items?

      I'm getting the feeling this is more about how someone could spend a HUGE budget instead of how someone could UPGRADE their data center.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by afidel ( 530433 )
        HUGE budget? Not even remotely, we recently went from a data closet to a small datacenter and spent significantly more, and in a simpler manner. We went to all HP servers which can be completely remotely managed through their ilo port, no need for crazy PDU's or IP KVM's.

        We did go with APC InfraStruXture for racks, kvm, and PDU's, but went with Liebert/Emerson for HVAC and UPS. We don't have traditional raised floor and the APC inline stuff is a bit on the expensive side.

        We went from all servers being
        • When did HP start charging licensing for iLo? Cheap fuckers, I already bought their servers - ding me another 200 bucks to get a remote console?

          Thanks HP, that felt nice.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Darein ( 249382 )
      That article pisses me off (like a lot of articles around lately, so little content and lots of ads). I am literally right next door to HIG, so good thing they gave the room number, maybe they will let me take pictures.

      • Not to mention this data center is tiny...I would call it more of a "server room". What this is is poor coverage of a not so interesting subject. Now, if this was a Google data center, color me interested.

    • Re:Lame (Score:4, Informative)

      by Das Modell ( 969371 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @10:42PM (#23833983)
      I scanned the pages, found no pictures and immediately lost interest. Why was this posted on Slashdot, exactly?
    • I agree. No actual pictures of said Pimped Datacenter.

      FAIL.
      • Especially since "pimping" is mainly about being seen by those you're targeting. ;)

        I wanted to see before and after shots AT LEAST! I read the summary and was thinking. I was wondering what a 50s era data center looked like... and what did they convert the unused space into?

    • Can we PLEASE stop posting stories from the dolts at InfoWorld?

      vi /etc/hosts
      /127
      A
      www.infoworld.com
      :wq!

  • booyha! (Score:4, Funny)

    by ILuvRamen ( 1026668 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @09:46PM (#23833565)
    They've gotta have LED fans in the servers and windowed cases with neons on the inside that pulse to the beat of the music, which is of course playing out some kickers and a biiiiig ass subwoofer :P

  • "deep-dive" ??? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Gothmolly ( 148874 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @09:47PM (#23833583)
    This is about as good an indicator as the phrase "best practice" that the speaker is a douche.

  • Wait a minute ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ScrewMaster ( 602015 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @09:50PM (#23833611)
    The project -- completed neither on time nor on budget

    including state-of-the-art datacenter-planning software

    Am I missing something?
    • The project -- completed neither on time nor on budget

      Editorial coverage includes essential tips for completing a datacenter overhaul

      Am I missing something?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dubl-u ( 51156 ) *

      The project -- completed neither on time nor on budget
      There's a phrase for that: over-optimistic planning.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbcad7 ( 771464 )
      Maybe they fired up the software on their newly built data center after it was built.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by TomRK1089 ( 1270906 )
      Well, this was my first thought too. But consider that now they can tell you how not to do it as well. Experience and all that, you know.

  • In Soviet Russia ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by mrroot ( 543673 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @09:53PM (#23833635)
    ... the Datacenter pimps you

  • Tag: nophotos (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RealGrouchy ( 943109 ) on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @10:02PM (#23833717)
    Let me get this straight: they are talking about an upgrade from a really old datacentre to a really new one (both of which would make or interesting visuals), and there are no photos in the article, which is split into two short pages of text.

    Then, when I click on the link for the videos, it's a bunch of 60-second clips of an interview!

    Totally lame.

    - RG>


    •     I'm glad I gave up at the article then. I was afraid if I watched the video's, I'd be even more disappointed.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by RealGrouchy ( 943109 )
      Upon closer inspection, it seems that all of snydeq [slashdot.org]'s submitted stories are multi-page infoworld.com stories, and the one comment that shows up has him plugging yet another infoworld story. (Plus, surprise surprise, his website is listed as infoworld.com)

      Looks like a linkwhore to me.

      - RG>

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by TravisO ( 979545 )
      I thought the same exact thing, I want to see pictures, not some guy with his arms crossed for 15mins.

  • ... deep-dive coverage ...
    Wait, how deep is the pool in that data center?
  • http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=s-e3iYLaVM8 [youtube.com]

    Boy #1 "Brian, you ain't no pimp, dude"
    Brian: "Where's my money?"
    Girl #1 "That's my money"
    -- fenslerfilm gijoe psa18

  • Hawaii = Huge Data Center Power Bill (Score:5, Informative)

    by miller60 ( 554835 ) * on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @10:19PM (#23833817) Homepage
    If you're in Hawaii, you better be pimping the dickens out of your data center. Hawaii has the most expensive electricity in the United States, according to state-by-state energy prices [datacenterknowledge.com], which show Hawaiian power prices at 16 to 17 cents per kW hour.
  • Of how the team managed to buy loads of pricey brand-name wizbangs, and skimp on hiring human talent until too late in the process, thereby squandering considerable money and time.

    Hmm, sounds oddly similar to so many other stories of troubled tech projects.

    I suppose it all comes down to the human preference to optimize the variables that they can easily quantify and tweak, not necessarily the ones that matter.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by T3Tech ( 1306739 )
      Who said anything about hiring human talent?
      Everyone knows that monkeys are great to have in IT and there should be some in every datacenter.

      Besides, monkeys are cheap and work for bananas, which just happen to be rather plentiful in Hawaii.


      Oh wait, maybe that's the problem...

  • Yawn . . . (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jgaynor ( 205453 ) <jon@@@gaynor...org> on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @10:38PM (#23833961) Homepage
    There's nothing new about anything being done here. Here's what they're ooh-ing and ahh-ing over:

    - Hot Aisle / Cold Aisle
    - Environmental Monitoring (with Netbotz, how inventive)
    - At-a-glance rack power load
    - Hard & Soft Remote reboots (LOM, web-enabled PDUs)
    - Physical Access Control (card based(!), no biometrics)
    - Run-o-the-mill remote console and IPKVM
    - Good cable management
    - Paying people to move your crap for you

    I thought this was gonna be like an iris-scanning, fully Direct Current, liquid cooled, flywheel-UPSed, heat reclaming technological wonderland. Instead it's just more 'throw money at the first google hit.'

    • I thought this was gonna be like an iris-scanning, fully Direct Current, liquid cooled, flywheel-UPSed, heat reclaming technological wonderland. Instead it's just more 'throw money at the first google hit.'
      Welcome to state expenditures in Hawaii where spending OPM, other people's money, is a work of art.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by pimpimpim ( 811140 )
        Really, who came up with the idea to ask an editor, and not a datacenter architect, to build this? Why did he get carte blanche to spend 400.000, no questions asked? Recently there was an article on slashdot that datacenter architects are in high demand, but this strikes me as being ridiculous.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by T3Tech ( 1306739 )
      But.. but... remote management! so they don't have to drive into the datacenter in the wee hours. This has got to be the best thing since TCP/IP.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by hakr89 ( 719001 )
      None of this is state of the art.
      Over here, we have
      - Hot Aisle / Cold Aisle
      - At-a-glance rack power load
      - Automated Hard Remote reboots (web-enabled PDUs)
      - Physical Access Control (biometric)
      - Run-o-the-mill remote console and IPKVM
      - (Relatively) Good cable management
      - people paying us to move their crap for them

      Most of this stuff is mandatory for a datacenter nowadays

  • Back in 2005 (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kilodelta ( 843627 )
    I should have submitted the datacenter I was responsible for moving.

    It went from two locations (One a closet, the other an ill suited room) to a brand new datacenter with redundant power, cooling, etc.

    Only moved 45 servers but still, on-time and on-budget. The planning process is what kept it sane.
  • I haven't been able to connect to the site for some reason... Still, when has evidence ever been required for when I voice my infallible opinion?

    There is a reason why it is called 'pimping': it means that it is full of tasteless glitter with little to no functional benefit, which will in a few years look distinctly goofy. Just take a look at any episode of the first series of Star Trek - no doubt it was thought of as very impressive when it was filmed, but now it looks like what some pre-teen has banged up
  • No Photos.

    Say what you will, but this day and age, no photos or other supporting media?

    Bullshit. I'm tired of people trying to pop up news stories without any multimedia. Like the so-called garbage island fiasco. Or that stupid komodo dragon crap from a few days ago.

    Sure, it sounds silly, "pics or it didn't happen". But I counter with "pics or I don't really care".

    It just shows terrible journalism, and an odd disconnect with what your audience---any audience---wants. What would you think of a news story of
  • "It's now a bona-fide 21st century datacenter equipped with some of the glitziest and most functional gear known to datacenter-building man! We will now take your questions. You, yes?"

    "This is Hawaii. Is it earthquake proof like the old one?"

    "Did I mention it's glitzy? Next question..."
  • How can there be such a thing, when there weren't any 1950s era servers?
  • I was one of the folks that participated in the Pimp My Datacenter event, and took pictures of the installation for those that requested: http://www.standingonthebrink.com/index.php/tag/pimp-your-datacenter/ [standingonthebrink.com] Disclaimer: I'm affiliated with Servprise, one of the companies featured in the article.

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